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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Old Words Cluttering Up Our Understanding of Each Other

My wife is six years younger than me and at times that can be a bit of a problem because our cultural reference points are so far from each other and yet, by far, the most difficult thing is our mixed lexicons. Last night was a prime example of this when we were discussing a friend of her's from college. My wife was lamenting her friend's situation and during the course of looking at some of her photos on Instagram she made the comment that the girl was looking so "ratchet."

Now for me a ratchet is something you use to tighten up a bolt so I gave her a look and gingerly asked, "She's a mechanic?"

"What," my wife asked with a look that bordered on smelling a fart.

"You said she's looking so ratchet."

A blank stare met me. And then it lingered before she finally said, "That's not what ratchet means."

"Oh?"

"It means that she looks all messed up," she said as she waved her hand about her face. "Her hair looks like hell. Her make-up is smeared. Things are just not right in her life. You know, ratchet."

"We call that fucked up in this house," I said in my best disapproving tone, "and I'll hear no argument from you."

Okay, true fact here. I grew up reading the bargain bin comics so I almost completely missed out on the 90s comics (I could get 20 comics from the 70s and 80s for what it cost me for three modern comics)!

I'm the youngster in my marriage (I'm in my mid-40s so "youngster" is a relative term) which might explain why I haven't experienced this kind of generational communication issue. My wife probably has though ... I remember the look on her face when I explained what Little John was referring to when he would exclaim "Skeet! Skeet! Skeet!" in a song. As for ratchet, if the article I found is correct the term has its roots in the Cedar Grove neighborhood in Shreveport and does seem to be derived from wretched. In the late 90s, Shreveport rappers used it in a song and, by the early 2000s, the term started being used by other Southern rappers so it spread across the Dirty South.

I'm also to old to know wtf it really means to any one, beyond :"Hand me that {ratchet} the muffler just fell of that piece of shit lawn mower again" (sizzle) "DAMN! that things hot..."Which it's how it's used in Oxfords Dic.

Who That Talking Over Here?

I'm a blogger that talks about all my favorite hobbies - from video games, to comics, to rpgs, to poker, and everything in between. I can also throw more words on the page than a room full of crack smoking monkeys being guarded by trigger happy robots. And unlike those banana munching, tree swingers I actually make sense most of the time!